Textile machines are known for producing substantial quantities of airborne particulate matter while processing fibers into woven fabric. These particulates may range from relatively small micron-size dust particles to relatively coarse particulates such as lint or the like. Airborne particulates are especially problematic with textile warping or beaming machines, which draw a number of individual threads from a creel of bobbins to form a sheet-like web of yarns that are wound onto a warping beam. The yarns are withdrawn from the bobbins and travel toward the beam at linear speeds in excess of 400 yards per minute. The sheet of yarns traveling at those speeds induces an air stream that travels with the yarn sheet, and carries dust and lint from the yarns and from the ambient air around the machine. This air stream follows the moving yarn sheet to the carrier roll of the warping apparatus, over which the yarn sheet passes before winding onto the beam. The particulate-laden air stream becomes attached to the curved surface of the carrier roll, which deflects the path of the induced air to blow from the warping machine toward the location where a machine operator may stand to inspect the beaming operation in progress.
Past attempts to control dust or other particulate matter in beaming apparatus usually call for exhausting the particulate-laden air from the machine and its immediate surroundings. One such apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,531, which discloses a protective structure surrounding and substantially enclosing the beaming apparatus. An air extractor hood is arranged above the winding machine and is connected to a fan for removing air over the machine. Dust-bearing air thus is removed from the vicinity of the machine and is filtered or discharged to the atmosphere. That apparatus appears to require a major and relatively expensive refit of existing warping machines, and does not directly deal with the flow of induced air created by the yarn sheet moving at high speed toward the machine operator.